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Topic: Jack Bhut, Fatali (Read 1589 times)

Since everyone seems to be making pepper cheeses lately I decided to add another to join my chipotle cheddar. Once I realized how cool sounding a name I had come up with for this one, I figured I had better make it so I can claim the trademark.

As the name implies, the base cheese is a Monterey Jack, pretty much following the 200 easy cheeses recipe. After draining I put the curds back in the pot and added 2 bhut jalokias and 4 Fatali scotch bonnets that I grew last summer. The dried peppers got a whirl in my coffee/spice grinder to make the pieces potentially tolerable and soaked them in water while the cheese was cooking. I chose this blend to mimic a nice and tasty hot sauce my son made. I guess I could have added garlic and black pepper to make it more like the sauce - next time. I also added salt along with the peppers because I forgot to buy enough to make a brine.

I ended up with just a bit more curd than would fit in my small mold from 2.5 gallons of PH milk. The 200 Easy recipe calls for pressing under "firm" pressure, 20-40 psi. The best I can muster up is about 10 psi on my small mold so that will have to do.

I nibbled on some leftover curd to get a feel for the heat and flavor. Heat is up there, I think only hard core chiliheads will be able to handle this unless it mellows quite a bit in the cave. The citrus like flavor of the fatalis dominates, with the bhut flavor coming in at the end. I find it hard to describe, and you really only get to it if you've cooked off most of the heat. It will make interesting cheeseburgers on Memorial Day.

A shot of the leftover curd - not many big pieces, which for most of us is a good thing. The red is bhut, the yellow fatali. For the uninitiated, bhut jalokias are around 1,000,000 Scovilles, Fatalis 300-400,000 and Tabasco sauce around 2,500. I guess I put the equivalent of a cup of Tabasco in a 2 pound cheese. Half an hour after eating a half teaspoon of curds I still have a nice warm feeling in my belly. And a shot after the first pressing.

The name brings to mind the word "fatality"! . Some kind of butt fatality? That does sound like it'll be a HOT cheese. Good to use if you lose your heating system and want to stay warm. As long as your butt doesn't fall off!. Do keep us posted on the survival rate of those eating this cheese?

I've done pepper eyes before. Just a bit of senility kicking in. I thought about taking my contacts out several times before I added the peppers. These are hot enough the few times I washed my hands after handling the cheese wasn't enough to prevent the burn. The burn only lasted half an hour. We'll see how long the burn lasts going in.

I think death from eating them was behind naming the fatali scotch bonnet. Bhut jalokias are also known as ghost peppers. The usual pronunciation is more like "boot". Although "butt issues" are an appropriate concern.

To me the cheese name conjures up thoughts of deadly jack boots.

I'm planning on using as an accent to grilled cheese, on cheeseburgers and eating on crackers. Maybe cool it off with jalapeño jelly. I'm a low grade heat freak and can't stand commercial pepper jack's lack of heat. Some will go to my son whose friends think 2,000,000 Scoville hot sauce is medium.

Thanks Karen. I'm happy with the way it turned out visually. I got a kick out of Tia's post too.

It seems you either like heat or don't. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. My girlfriend keeps asking why I want to eat food that requires taking Zantac before I sit down. I'm not sure how I developed my taste for heat. Most of the time my Mom limited "spices" to salt and pepper. Once I discovered it, the feeling was "where have you been all my life?" I even wish Lindt would put more pepper in their cayenne chocolate.

The name brings to mind the word "fatality"! . Some kind of butt fatality? That does sound like it'll be a HOT cheese. Good to use if you lose your heating system and want to stay warm. As long as your butt doesn't fall off!. Do keep us posted on the survival rate of those eating this cheese?

(hope your eyes are okay)

Classic! Had to stifle my out-loud laugh to keep from waking the missus.

The usual pronunciation is more like "boot". Although "butt issues" are an appropriate concern.

To me the cheese name conjures up thoughts of deadly jack boots.

Maybe cool it off with jalapeño jelly.

Well, uh...kudos, Bob. A cheese to you for forging into your own personal Hell. I think you should give this lovely little mischievous cheese its rightful place at the table on the Fourth of July...with the name:

I like Boofer's name suggestion of "Solar Flare" or perhaps a slight different spelling of Bob's original.... "Jack Butt Fatality". Hey, that sounds like a band name! Glad to have provided some laughs and near-snarfs.

I knew some elderly French Canadians and their name for extremely spicy sausage directly translated to "burn your butthole" if I remember correctly. Maybe it's handy to have a warning built right into the name...prevents death of innocent tasters.

This is heat with flavor, you just need to build up to the point that you can taste the citrus of the fatali and fruitiness of the bhut.

Or do as my son did and cook the heat off. When he was cooking the sauce my eyes burned when I got out of my car. He was wearing a respirator. Even behind closed doors in the master bath the capsaicin was so strong I had trouble breathing. The net result was somewhere around 250,000 Scovilles. Hot but bearable for the experienced.

I use fatalis for Jerk rub on chicken and pork. About one pepper and the other spices for two large pieces of chicken seems right for the heat tolerant. Of course Bobby Flay suggests one per 8 pieces trying to keep it at something he can sell in a restaurant. I like his recipe, adjust the heat to your liking.